Spectroscopic studies of Cr3+ ions in natural single crystal of magnesium aluminate spinel MgAl2O4

The natural spinel crystal MgAl2O4 containing the Cr3+ ions was studied experimentally and theoretically in this paper. The absorption and emission spectra at room and low temperatures were recorded. The experimental spectroscopic results were aided with the crystal field calculations, which returned the energy level schemes of the Cr3+ ions at the Al sites with the local D3d symmetry. Effects of the trigonal crystal field were clearly seen in the calculated results, which were compared with the experimental spectra to yield a good agreement between both data sets.